"Albert's babes shall deck our grave, SHEPHERD. "Long before thy sun descend, "As our lakes, at day's decline, WANDERER. "Though our parent perish'd here, "Mountains, can ye chain the will? "Thus it was in hoary time, "Freedom, in a land of rocks "Thus they pray'd ;- -a sacred hand "To the Vale of Switz they came "Thence their ardent labors spread, "So, in regions wild and wide, We will pierce the savage woods, Clothe the rocks in purple pride, Plow the valleys, tame the floods ; 1 There is a tradition among the Swiss, that they are de scended from the ancient Scandinavians; among whom, in a remote age, there arose so grievous a famine, that it was determined in the assembly of the Nation, that every tenth man and his family should quit their country, and seek a new possession. Six thousand, chosen by lot, thus emigrated at once from the North. They prayed to God to conduct them to a land like their own, where they might dwell in freedom and quiet, finding food for their families, and pasture for their cattle. God, says the tradition, led them to a valley among the Alps, where they cleared away the forests, built the town of Switz, and afterwards peopled and cultivated the cantons of Uri and Underwalden. WRITTEN IN HONOR OF THE ABOLITION OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE BY THE Receive him for ever; not now as a servant, but above a servant,-a brother beloved. TO THE PUBLIC. St. Paul's Epist. to Philemon, v. 15, 16. which had become antiquated, by frequent, minute, and disgusting exposure; which afforded no opportunity to awaken, suspend, and delight curiosity, by THERE are objections against the title and plan of a subtle and surprising developement of plot; and this poem, which will occur to almost every reader. concerning which public feeling had been wearied The Author will not anticipate them: he will only into insensibility, by the agony of interest which the observe, that the title seemed the best, and the plan question excited, during three-and-twenty years of the most eligible, which he could adapt to a subject almost incessant discussion. That trade is at length so various and excursive, yet so familiar, and ex-abolished. May its memory be immortal, that hencehausted, as the African Slave Trade,-a subject forth it may be known only by its memory! THE WEST INDIES. PART I. ARGUMENT. Introduction; on the Abolition of the Slave Trade. The Mariner's Compass.-Columbus.-The Discovery of America.-The West Indian Islands.The Caribs.-Their Extermination. "THY chains are broken, Africa: be free!" Thus saith the island-empress of the sea; Thus saith Britannia-Oh, ye winds and waves! Waft the glad tidings to the land of slaves; Proclaim on Guinea's coast, by Gambia's side, And far as Niger rolls his eastern tide,' Through radiant realms, beneath the burning zone, Where Europe's curse is felt, her name unknown, Thus saith Britannia, empress of the sea, "Thy chains are broken, Africa: be free!" Long lay the ocean-paths from man conceal'd: Light came from heaven, the magnet was reveal'd, Then man no longer plied with timid oar, From clime to clime the wanderer loved to roam, The waves his heritage, the world his home. Then first Columbus, with the mighty hand Of grasping genius, weigh'd the sea and land; The floods o'erbalanced-where the tide of light, Day after day, roll'd down the gulf of night, There seem'd one waste of waters:-long in vain His spirit brooded o'er the Atlantic main; When sudden, as creation burst from nought, Sprang a new world, through his stupendous thought, Light, order, beauty!-While his mind explored The unveiling mystery, his heart adored; Where'er sublime imagination trod, He heard the voice, he saw the face of God. Far from the western cliffs he cast his eye O'er the wide ocean stretching to the sky: 1 Mungo Park, in his travels, ascertained that "the great river of the Negroes" flows eastward. It is probable, therefore, that this river is either lost among the sands, or empties itself into some inland sea, in the undiscovered regions of Africa.→ Bee also Part II, line 64. In calm magnificence the sun declined, "Ah! on this sea of glory might I sail, Track the bright sun, and pierce the eternal veil That hides those lands, beneath Hesperian skies, Where day-light sojourns till our morrow rise!" Thoughtful he wander'd on the beach alone; Soft fell the shades, till Cynthia's slender bow Crested the farthest wave, then sunk below: Tell me, resplendent guardian of the night, Circling the sphere in thy perennial flight, What secret path of heaven thy smiles adorn, What nameless sea reflects thy gleaming horn?" Now earth and ocean vanish'd, all serene "Lead on;-I go to win a glorious bride; 1 When the Author of The West Indies conceived the plan of this introduction of Columbus, he was not aware that he was indebted to any preceding poet for a hint on the subject; but, some time afterwards, on a second perusal of Southey's Madoc, it struck him that the idea of Columbus walking on the shore at sunset, which he had hitherto imagined his own, might be only a reflection of the impression made upon his mind long before, by the first reading of the following splendid passage. He therefore gladly makes this acknowledgment, though at his own expense, in justice to the Author of the noblest narrative poem in the English language, after the Faerie Queen and Paradise Lost. When evening came, toward the echoing shore The burnish'd silver sea, that heaved and flash'd Its restless rays intolerably bright. "Prince!" quoth Cadwallon, "thou hast rode the waves In triumph when the Invader felt thine arm. Oh what a nobler conquest might be won There, upon that wide field!" "What meanest thou?" I cried : That yonder waters are not spread A boundless waste, a bourne impassable; 1 The winds were prosperous, and the billows bore The brave adventurer to the promised shore; Far in the west, array'd in purple light, Dawn'd the new world on his enraptured sight: Not Adam, loosen'd from the encumbering earth, Waked by the breath of God to instant birth, With sweeter, wilder wonder gazed around, When life within, and light without he found; When, all creation rushing o'er his soul, Earth from her lap perennial verdure pours, He seem'd to live and breathe throughout the whole. And night and winter stagnate round the pole : So felt Columbus, when, divinely fair, At the last look of resolute despair, The Hesperian isles, from distance dimly blue, Vain, visionary hope! rapacious Spain And steel'd to cruelty by lust of gold, They worshipp'd Mammon while they vow'd to God. Let nobler bards in loftier numbers tell How Cortez conquer'd, Montezuma fell; How fierce Pizarro's ruffian arm o'erthrew The Sun's resplendent empire in Peru; How, like a prophet, old Las Casas stood, And raised his voice against a sea of blood, Whose chilling waves recoil'd while he foretold His country's ruin by avenging gold. -That gold, for which unpitied Indians fell, That gold, at once the snare and scourge of hell, Thenceforth by righteous Heaven was doom'd to shed Unmingled curses on the spoiler's head; For gold the Spaniard cast his soul away,— His gold and he were every nation's prey. But themes like these would ask an angel-lyre, Language of light and sentiment of fire; Give me to sing, in melancholy strains, Of Carib martyrdoms and Negro chains; One race by tyrants rooted from the earth, One doom'd to slavery by the taint of birth! Where first his drooping sails Columbus furl'd, And sweetly rested in another world, Amidst the heaven-reflecting ocean, smiles A constellation of elysian isles; Fair as Orion, when he mounts on high, Sparkling with midnight splendor from the sky: They bask beneath the sun's meridian rays, When not a shadow breaks the boundless blaze; The breath of ocean wanders through their vales In morning breezes and in evening gales: Some resting-place for peace. Oh! that my soul Man too, where freedom's beams and fountains rise, In placid indolence supinely blest, A feeble race these beauteous isles possess'd; Dreadful as hurricanes, athwart the main Or with weak arms their fiery vengeance braved, The Indian, as he turn'd his head in flight, The conflict o'er, the valiant in their graves, The wretched remnant dwindled into slaves; Condemn'd in pestilential cells to pine, Delving for gold amidst the gloomy mine. The sufferer, sick of life-protracting breath, Inhaled with joy the fire-damp blast of death. -Condemn'd to fell the mountain palm on high, That cast its shadow from the evening sky, Ere the tree trembled to his feeble stroke, The woodman languish'd, and his heart-strings broke; -Condemn'd, in torrid noon, with palsied hand, To urge the slow plow o'er the obdurate land, The laborer, smitten by the sun's quick ray, PART II. ARGUMENT. From rude Caffraria, where the giraffes browse, A world of wonders,-where creation seems The Cane.-Africa.-The Negro.-The Slave-Carry- And earthquake step, she walks abroad with death: AMONG the bowers of paradise, that graced Those islands of the world-dividing waste, Where towering cocoas waved their graceful locks, And vines luxuriant cluster'd round the rocks; Where orange-groves perfumed the circling air, With verdure, flowers, and fruit for ever fair; Gay myrtle foliage track'd the winding rills, And cedar forests slumber'd on the hills; -An eastern plant, ingrafted on the soil,' Was till'd for ages with consuming toil; No tree of knowledge with forbidden fruit, Death in the taste, and ruin at the root; Yet in its growth were good and evil found, It bless'd the planter, but it cursed the ground; While with vain wealth it gorged the master's hoard, And spread with manna his luxurious board, Its culture was perdition to the slave,It sapp'd his life, and flourish'd on his grave. When the fierce spoiler from remorseless Spain Tasted the balmy spirit of the cane, (Already had his rival in the west From the rich reed ambrosial sweetness press'd), Where the stupendous Mountains of the Moon Cast their broad shadows o'er the realms of noon; 1 The Cane is said to have been first transplanted from Madeira to the Brazils, by the Portuguese, and afterwards introduced by the Spaniards into the Caribbee Islands.-See also ine 21, b.low. At blazing noon pursues the evening breeze, With shells and sea-flower-wreaths she binds her locks: She slept on isles of velvet verdure, placed Her steps the wild bees welcome through the vale, In these romantic regions, man grows wild; |